655 Students to Benefit from Co-operative Bank Scholarships

655 gifted but needy students have managed to secure scholarship opportunities from this years’ Co-operative Banks’ Foundation Scholarship Scheme to join Form one.

Of the 655 new scholarships to Form One student, 420 were awarded by the bank’s Regional Delegates’ Forums and the remaining 235 scholarships, at 5 per county, awarded by County Governments in all the 47 counties

Speaking during the launch of the launch, Co-op Bank’s Managing Director and CEO DR. Gideon Muriuki noted that this year’s intake of 655 Form One beneficiaries stood as the largest secondary education scholarship scheme in Kenya today.

The CEO said that a large number of Kenyans holding positions of responsibility today were educated with loans from the Co-operative Movement and that is why the bank, being the premier co-operative institution in Kenya, has taken the lead in this area

“Our scholarship beneficiaries are selected at the grassroots level by Co-operative Societies across the country through a well-established national delegates system,” said Dr. Muriuki.

He added that Co-operative Societies, who are the face of Kenya, identify well-performing students from disadvantaged backgrounds then bring the names into a regional forum where delegates debate and select the most deserving cases.

“At the banks’ head office, our role is to process payments to the schools and monitor the students’ performance through the four years in secondary school. The top 28 in the Form Four examination each year are granted an additional full scholarship for their university education,” Dr. Muriuki added.

Dr. Gideon Muriuki urged corporate institutions and people of goodwill to come together and support initiatives within the education sector to help brilliant but needy Kenyans realize their full potential.

Commenting further on this program, Dr. Gideon Muriuki disclosed that the reason behind Co-Op Bank choosing education scholarships as its flagship Corporate Social Investment was because education is one of the most expensive items in any household budget yet with the highest potential to liberate people from poverty.

Additionally, the bank is educating a total of 159 students, selected from the top performing beneficiaries of the secondary school scholarships, through their entire university education.

Following this year 2018 intake, the Co-operative Bank will have provided full education sponsorship to 5,899 deserving Kenyans, of whom 4,110 will have gone through secondary education and 140 university studies.

Co-operative Bank provides full school fees scholarships for the entire four years of secondary education. University scholarships are awarded to the best-performing students from each region.

The scholarship program was launched in 2007.